There are many versions of stacking chairs available that are designed for temporary seating in small and large areas, auditoriums or other event spaces. In one exemplary use of such chairs, a school may have a gymnasium that serves both for athletic purposes and for school meeting purposes. Folding chairs are needed for the meeting purposes, but would get in the way of the athletic uses. Therefore, chairs have been designed to stack upon each other so that when not in use, they can be stored in a relatively small space.
The process of un-stacking and stacking the chairs for storage and use often causes the chair frames to rub against each other which can damage the finish. In some cases, metal on metal contact can cause chairs to become stuck due to the concentration of the weight of many chairs onto relatively small contact areas. For example, the bottom two chairs in a stack of ten or more may become stuck together or difficult to remove from each other.
In addition, many of the stacking chairs do not include the ability to have a tilting seating surface. Some common folding chairs may fold flat, for stacking when flat, but when opened, the seating area often cannot be tilted relative to a generally stationary frame. Since many stacking chairs are designed for frame to frame contact, padding on the chairs is often minimal because the padding takes up a large amount of space. Since some prior art stacking chairs are often designed for frame on frame contact to avoid surface to surface contact of the upholstered seat, adding padding reduces the number of chairs that can be stacked and still fit in typical door heights found in many buildings.